Healthy Life Crusaders

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May 14, 2015

This smoothie recipe has NO protein Powder. Protein powders contain very high amounts of free glutamate (MSG) and they make a lot of people have headaches, sweats, fatigue and other symptoms. Plus they are not a whole food and highly processed. Here is a recipe that contains 21 grams of protein and stays around 300 calories. It's not a decadent smoothie, but it is tasty and healthy for you if you need to watch calories, carbs and increase protein and fiber.

Nov 7, 2014

Hey, one advantage of a blog with traffic is I can shamelessly plug my new etsy shop. I am a true chocoholic, and I think everyone should eat chocolate all the time but that sugar! Makes me sick if I eat as much as I'd like. I've been perfecting my low sugar hot cocoa recipe with minimal sugar replacement taste. First I use real cocoa, and real milk, not some whey and oil monstrosity. Then I add stevia and just a touch of sugar to balance the sweetness out. Only one gram of sugar is added per serving! It is so delicious and comes in 4 flavors. Dark chocolate, Milk chocolate, double Dutch chocolate and White chocolate.

Toffee Flavor Spoon

I also have a little creation known as hot chocolate on a stick. It also is low sugar and made with stevia. When mixed into hot whole milk, it is a divine experience. It is made with real chocolate not cocoa powder. It melts it's goodness into your choice of milk and will make you feel like you are royalty.

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

Double Dutch Hot Cocoa

I also make regular sugar sweetened cocoas for those who want them. They are still relatively healthy because I only use natural, fine ingredients. Finally, I also make corn syrup free marshmallows! They are fluffy and delicious. Try it all!
-Val

Sep 19, 2014

You can do it a couple ways, you can buy disposables, ruin the environment and spend a TON of money, or you can buy compostable disposables and spend even more money or you can spend a little less money and do cloth diapers OR you can spend way less and do cloth diapers.

Some cloth diapers are just ridiculously priced. I searched high and low for a diapering solution that was environmentally friendly, healthy for baby, easy for me, and cheap.

If you are not sure if you are a cloth diapering person, there is only one question you need to ask yourself. Do you have a problem keeping up with laundry? If they answer is yes, definitely or what is laundry? then you will either need to change some things in your life or know that cloth diapering is not for you.

What I've spent on cloth diapering ...$225!
And what I've bought will last me until this babe is out of diapers. I may need to add a new set of liners here or there, but even then we are talking $20-$50 more The average family spends $600 per year on diapers. If you are diapering for 3 years... or more... That really adds. up.

Here's what I use:

Imagine Newborn Diaper cover. Only if you have very small babies. My 6 month old is still in these, she is very small. About $9-10 each. I ordered 4. That was enough for the first couple months. You can dump out the liner and reuse the cover all day or until soiled.

Planet wise wet bag. A place to put dirty diaper liners when you are on the road. $11.95 You could just use a ziplock bag actually, but these are washable and reusable and come in bigger sizes too.

A waterproof, reusable, diaper pail liner. You take the whole thing out of the pail and dump it and the diapers in the wash. You will want 2, so you have one to use while the other is washing and drying. $17-$20

Imagine diaper cover. You'll need bigger diaper liners eventually if you go with the newborn size at first. Both are adjustable to fit many different sizes but the newborn gets very small. The regular size can accommodate many newborns or after the first month. $10-$12

We decided to try a new brand Bumkins. They are great quality and way more adjustable but I kinda like the simplicity of the Imagine covers. These have way to many snaps and they have a flap inside to "hold in the liner" better. I find it just gets dirty faster and doesn't stop leaks any better than the Imagine brand, without flaps and is cheaper. They also have double gusseting, that means 2 elastics around the leg. the imagine brand has this too. I have 2 Flip diaper covers also, that were the most expensive. You can tell when you look at the quality stitching. Other than that they are not better than the Imagine diapers. They do not have double gusseting but it doesn't really seem to make much of a difference in terms of containment. They also have those inner flaps that do nothing but get dirty faster.

For wipes, I bought a roll of these bamboo towels. I cut them into fourths. They get washed with everything else and reused. They are way better than regular wipes. They are thicker, and better at cleaning and keeping your hands clean with a much smaller wipe. $15-20

You need a place to stash diapers until you can wash them. This Safety 1st pail is perfect because it seals the smells out well and my liners fit it well. It is small and compact but holds plenty. $20.

I have 10 diaper covers and 24 absorbent diaper liners, It is best to put a fleece liner over the diaper liner for a stay dry feel. I simply bought fleece at the store for $2 a yard and cut about 24 that fit my absorbent liners. You can double up on liners for more absorbency or buy microfiber liners to place under the bamboo liners. You can also use triple folds. I've even seen people make their own absorbent liners with terry cloth, cotton, microfiber, bamboo, hemp, and other things.

At each change, dump the liners in the diaper pail, if the cover is clean then you can reuse it. If not put it in the pail too and any wipes used. If baby is eating solids, dump them into the toilet as much as possible, then put liners in the pail. If baby is exclusively breast feeding, then you do not need to do anything but put it all in the pail.

To wash I use tide and have soft water in my home. I have a front loader machine and have no problems with it getting them clean.

I dump the diapers, liners, wipes, wet bags, pail liners, all into the washer, then I run it on cold rinse and spin. Then I add 1/4 the amount of soap the box recommends for a load, and wash it all on hot wash. When that is done, if my diapers have been getting a little smelly after baby wears them, like uric acid is building up, which is an ammonia smell, then I do one last rinse and spin. This always solves that problem. Remove all of the diaper covers, diaper pail liners and wet bags (do not dry in dryer, it will ruin your covers) and allow to air dry. Put the wipes, and liners and fleece in the dryer and dry on hot.

If you have stains on your liners, hang them in the sun for 1 day. The sun bleaches away the stains.

When you leave the house pack a wet bag, 2 covers, equivalent liners, plus one or two extra liners and some wipes.

If your baby has a rash problem, try washing with a cup of vinegar in the second hot cycle.

Do not use any diaper creams against your absorbent liners or they won't absorb anymore. Use your fleece liners to protect your absorbent liner and then just make new liners when you need to.

If you are not sure if you are a cloth diapering person, there is only one question you need to ask yourself. Do you have a problem keeping up with laundry? If they answer is yes, definitely or what is laundry? then you will either need to change some things in your life or know that cloth diapering is not for you.

If you are ok with laundry, then know that you only have to wash diapers once every 2 days or so and you are doing tons of laundry anyway with a little baby.

Sep 18, 2014

It's not enough to have a pumpkin flavored cookie. There must also be spice to engage in the fullness of fall. That's why there's a lot of "fall" in my cookie recipe. This is my tried and true recipe I have been using for many years.

I was checking my Seasoning Salt Label for MSG, like I do all my prepackaged foods, when it occurred to me how easy it would be to make it myself. The ingredients are basic, and simple, minus a few unnecessary ingredients like anti caking silicon and coloring. I love using seasoning salt because it ads a little extra flavor to dishes without a lot of complication. Most likely you would be adding the spices contained within it to your dish anyway. You will need a mortar and pestle or a high powered blender like a Blend Tec, or a vita-mix or a coffee/spice grinder, or use finely ground salts and spices to start with. To prevent settling, it's best to have all of the ingredient particles roughly the same size.

1. Salt
I like to use Redmonds Real Salt, it is minimally processed sea salt. It maintains many beneficial minerals, that is why it is pinkish in color.
2. Chili Powder
I love a good chili powder, Get one that is a nice bright red and smells like fresh chili's for best flavor.
3. Pepper
I used fresh ground black peppercorn blend, If you do not have a grinder or blender I would recommend white pepper. the hard shell has been removed and it is very finely ground. Go easy on it though! Use roughly half what you would regular pepper.
4.Celery Seed
Celery seed is so savory and fragrant! If you are not already using this to season dishes, you should!
5. Onion
Use dry onion powder, or flakes if you are using a blender or mortar
6. Paprika
Ads more of that classic red seasoned salt color, plus a gentle heat.
7. Garlic
Use dry garlic powder.
Without the coloring added to this mix, the color will be more pink in the bottle, than red like commercial seasoned salt, a small price to pay... It tastes just like it and this recipe will make enough to fill your old 8 oz seasoned salt container!

I love a good fried egg but they can be tricky to get them just right. I do not like any part of my whites brown or chewy, and I don't like it runny either, but I prefer my yolks slightly runny, but not watery and never hard. If you agree with me, then what you are looking for is not a fried egg, but a six minute boiled egg.

Start a pot of boiling water with about 1 teaspoon of salt. Once it begins to rapidly boil, carefully place the eggs in the pot. Immediately set your timer for 6 minutes and walk away. As soon as the timer goes off, place your pot under cold running water and allow it to overflow into the sink until the water is all cool.

Then you can break and peel your eggs. If you did it just right it will peel easily and will not break the whites.

When you cut into your egg it will be creamy and just right.

Not too runny or too hard. All of the whites will be cooked firm but not rubbery.

Before we moved into our townhouse we lived in a rental house that had a huge garden in it. I was very successful at growing giant sunflowers, tomatoes and carrots, I even grew delicious giant ears of corn and had zucchini taking over my life. Well, we bought our townhouse, which I love, but the garden is lacking. It has a small 30' x 15' back yard that is half patio.

There are of course, pros and cons to not having a massive yard and garden to take care of, like more time to do everything else, smaller water bills and less sun burns and heat stroke in the Utah summers.

The first year in our townhouse, I tried raised garden beds. They were a huge flop. They didn't drain properly and the soil in them was such junk that nothing would grow very fast. By the end of the season we had not one tomato.

The next year I tried container gardening as you can see in the picture below. It was slightly more successful. By the end of the season I had 4 green tomatoes which my son picked before they could ripen and I didn't even get one squash. I know this method works for some... but it certainly didn't work for me. I thought long and hard about what made my garden successful for those two years in the rental house. One, the landlord dumped amazing black topsoil AND compost from the waste processing facility into the garden. Amazing soil, very important. It got almost full sun. My backyard gets less than 6 hours a day of direct sunlight. But that year I tried container gardening something funny happened. A stray tomato from some kitchen waste got thrown into the back under a tree. It got maybe 3 or 4 hours of sun a day and it grew better than anything else I had planted that year. So I knew that sunlight in my yard should be less of an issue than I thought.

Container gardening, not very successful. Grass area of 15'x15' before beds were put in.

I decided I would get rid of the grass and use the soil available. I used the cardboard method. I covered the spots I wanted to be dirt in cardboard and covered it with top soil. I left it all fall and all winter and all spring. When the ground thawed I pulled up what cardboard had not composted and threw it out. Then I turned it all in with a hand tiller. Back breaking! But good exercise. All winter long we threw all of our kitchen scraps out into the soil. I smashed every egg shell we used and threw it out there, knowing that the dirt in this area is often lacking calcium, which the tomatoes especially need but it benefits all plants.

In the process of composting the grass for garden beds.

As you can see in the picture below, come June I had thriving tomatoes on the right (started from seeds inside), a zucchini that is now 3 times that size (started right in soil from seed), and some various squash and pumpkins, all stated in the soil from seed. I also have some peppers near the tomatoes, and have already harvested peas and a full crop of lettuce.

squash vines after a month of growing. They grow so rapidly! We went away for 4 days and when we got back the vines had doubled in size prompting us to build the permanent arbor.

Since my vines have gotten out of control, and I just don't have the heart to get rid of some of them I convinced the husband we needed to build this arbor out of scrap wood.

Simple arbor I designed and the husband helped build. All out of scrap wood.

You can see below that the vines have already climbed over the arbor, with some coaching by me. I have a small push mower that takes about 90 seconds to clean up the horseshoe shape of grass path. I have a drip system tied into my hose and each section of the garden has one sprinkler. This has seemed to be enough. I have a simple timer that I just have to manually set to the time I want it to run each day. I spend about 15 minutes a week weeding. I expect by the end of August I will have plenty of food coming out of my garden. I only wish it was bigger so I could spend more time gardening!

Aerial view of tiny yard. You can fit a lot of plants in a small space, they just need some sunlight, not full sun, some water and GOOD soil is the key.

Now we have almost an acre to tackle. But I wanted to share how you can have a successful garden in a small space, soil is really the most important part of any garden.